Bestatin, A Pluripotent Immunomodulatory Small Molecule, Drives Robust and Long-Lasting Immune Responses as an Adjuvant in Viral Vaccines

Abstract

An inactivated whole-virus vaccine is currently used to prevent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Although this vaccine is effective, it offers short-term immunity that requires regular booster immunizations and has several side effects, including local reactions at the vaccination site. To address these limitations, herein, we evaluated the efficacy of bestatin as a novel small molecule adjuvant for inactivated FMD vaccines. Our findings showed that the FMD vaccine formulated with bestatin enhanced early, intermediate-, and particularly long-term immunity in experimental animals (mice) and target animals (pigs). Furthermore, cytokines (interferon (IFN)α, IFNβ, IFNγ, and interleukin (IL)-29), retinoic acid-inducible gene (RIG)-I, and T-cell and B-cell core receptors (cluster of differentiation (CD)28, CD19, CD21, and CD81) markedly increased in the group that received the FMD vaccine adjuvanted with bestatin in pigs compared with the control. These results indicate the significant potential of bestatin to improve the efficacy of inactivated FMD vaccines in terms of immunomodulatory function for the simultaneous induction of potent cellular and humoral immune response and a long-lasting memory response.

Assessing immunogenicity of CRISPR-NCas9 engineered strain against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus

“…Traditional vaccines include inactivated vaccines and attenuated vaccines, but they all have certain defects. The immune response induced by intramuscular injection of inactivated vaccine takes a long time and could not effectively stimulate the mucosal immune response dominated by sIgA (Kim et al 2023 ). The attenuated vaccine could induce the production of specific antibodies quickly and at high levels, yet there is a potential risk of reversion and enhancement of virulence (Teng et al 2022 ).…”

Dinuclear Titanium(III)-Catalyzed Radical-Type Kinetic Resolution of Epoxides for the Enantioselective Synthesis of cis-Glycidic Esters

“…Notably, cis -glycidic esters stand out by enabling a facile route to stereochemically well-defined structures through inherently regio- and stereoselective nucleophilic ring-opening reactions . The resulting α-hydroxy esters featuring two adjacent cis -aligned tertiary stereocenters are notably presented in a number of significant bioactive molecules, such as taxol, diltiazem, bestatin, and amastatin (Scheme a). Despite significant progress in the asymmetric synthesis of trans - and trisubstituted glycidic esters, , achieving enantioselective synthesis of cis -glycidic esters remains a long-standing challenge.…”